CAMBRIDGE BAY—Cambridge Bay residents reacted with anger and disbelief when they learned last night that large vehicles and other items on board a barge stranded in Inuvik will not be airlifted to their community.

At a meeting with John Vandenberg, assistant deputy minister of the Government of the Northwest Territories’ Department of Infrastructure, and Kelley Ryder, the department’s senior communications officer, they learned that these items are not part of what Vandenberg had called a “massive logistic effort” to move goods from Inuvik to Paulatuk, Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay.

Earlier, Vandenberg had not ruled out flying in vehicles from the stranded barge. For Cambridge Bay, this cargo includes some 30 pick-up trucks as well as new water, sewage and garbage trucks for the hamlet.